Rating the rankings
Collegiate sports use unique criteria to generate more accurate rankings Nicholas Rasmusson
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rasmunic000@hsestudents.org
ith the College Football Playoff national championship game coming to Indianapolis in January, rankings have become a major topic of conversation. Each sport has its unique system to rate each team, but there are two systems that stand out from the rest: the collegiate ranking system, specifically the ones used for football and basketball. These rankings are put together using many factors that allow the rankings to be as accurate as possible despite having no perfect answer. One of the big contributors to the rankings are known as “ranking metrics.” Ranking metrics look deeper into the statistics and metrics of a team, including their strength of schedule and record, offensive and defensive efficiency, among other factors. The strength of a team’s schedule is determined by the performance of their opponents during the course of the entire season. If a team plays a schedule filled with ranked teams and Power 5 conference opponents, their strength of schedule will rank higher than one who faces mostly unranked foes and teams from non-Power 5 conferences. Strength of record indicates a team’s performance against the opponents on their schedule in relation to their strength of schedule. Offensive and defensive efficiency speak to a team’s ability to put points on the board and keep points from being scored on them. These factors provide major help for the football and basketball ranking committees, as it dives deeper into the statistics hidden behind a record.
Sports
Another key contributor is known as the “eye test.” While numbers provide rankers with a strong foundation to build off of, numbers cannot be the only thing factored into a ranking. Watching how a team performs against opponents can help rankers more accurately define how good a team is. Headto-head matchups are also a major portion when giving out rankings. Head-to-head matchups can help rankers give an edge to a team, especially in a situation where the teams in question look relatively even. This helps answer the question: Which sport has the best ranking system? The short answer is that the collegiate system does. College football and basketball have the best ranking system in all of sports. It is momentum-based and has facts and numbers to back up each ranking. While it is correct most of the time, it will, along with all other ranking systems, make a mistake every once in a while. This college football season, Michigan and Michigan State faced off, and Michigan State emerged victorious 3733, but the following week, Michigan State fell against Purdue, losing 40-29. In the rankings that were released later that week, Michigan State was ranked seventh, one spot behind Michigan. This was an inexcusable mistake because Michigan State had the headto-head win against Michigan. Similarly, in the 2017-18 college basketball season, the Oklahoma State Cowboys were shockingly left out of the Big Dance while the Oklahoma Sooners were selected as a 10 seed. Oklahoma State had been playing some of
their best basketball at that point during the season, and they had just knocked Oklahoma out of the Big 12 Tournament, in addition to having a better record than the Sooners. Nevertheless, those minor mistakes made by both committees should be completely overshadowed by their successes. In the Week 13 College Football Playoff rankings, the University of Texas-San Antonio (UTSA) was ranked 22, despite having an 11-0 record. Even though they had a great record, looking deeper into UTSA as a whole, they were ranked properly. UTSA’s top win this season is most likely against a subpar Illinois team, and their schedule was weak throughout the year. Similarly, during the 2014-15 college basketball season, the Murray State Racers posted a strong 26-4 regular season record and finished ranked number 25, but they were left out of the NCAA tournament. While this might look controversial, the correct decision was made. Murray State did not have the resume of a tournament caliber team, and they crumbled when they played stronger competition. When it comes to ranking systems, the collegiate system takes the cake. The combination of factors makes them difficult to dispute, and they tend to give an accurate representation of the strength of each team. As a sports fan, I hope that other sports leagues adopt a similar system to collegiate athletics, including the IHSAA. This would help properly rate teams and athletes before postseason play begins.
The College Football Playoff national championship game will make a trip to Indianapolis in January of 2022, where the winner will be crowned national champion. The College Football Playoff committee will rank the top four teams to determine who gets to compete for the national crown. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
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